Dancing for a cause
Event raises more than $250,000 for nonprofits
SCV Dancing With Our Stars once again raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Santa Clarita Valley nonprofit organizations and gave the community a chance to see SCV volunteers cut a rug for a cause.
This year, the event raised a grand total of $256,434.22 for local organizations, said Alex Hafizi, vice president of marketing and production for the Magazine of Santa Clarita, and associate publisher of SCV Elite Magazine, which sponsors the event.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Capt. Robert Lewis, on behalf of the Sheriff’s Foundation, garnered the best male dancer Award, and Alexandria Grable, dancing for Circle of Hope, won the best female dancer award.
Each year, a group of volunteers, one selected by each nonprofit that’s involved in the event, are matched up with a professional dancer, and they work together on a routine, as well as fundraising events, in the lead-up to last weekend’s showcase of their performances.
“We tried to think outside of the box when we created this,” Hafizi said. “And we just thought it would be a way to connect the nonprofits, and there’s no event out here that has this many nonprofits involved.”
Since the event’s inception in 2009, it’s raised more than $1.5 million which is all put to use to help SCV residents, according to the event’s website.
The event was sponsored by Team Bkjorkman, the SCV Veterans Services Collaborative, the city of Santa Clarita and Nola Aronson’s Advanced Audiology.